5A5 Steak Lounge has improved with aging

5A5 Steak Lounge's main dining room, with its large, perforated dome, has a cool, futuristic style that's a bit reminiscent of "The Jetsons."

5A5 Steak Lounge's main dining room, with its large, perforated dome, has a cool, futuristic style that's a bit reminiscent of "The Jetsons."

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

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5A5 Steak Lounge's main dining room, with its large, perforated dome, has a cool, futuristic style that's a bit reminiscent of "The Jetsons."

5A5 Steak Lounge's main dining room, with its large, perforated dome, has a cool, futuristic style that's a bit reminiscent of "The Jetsons."

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

5A5 Steak Lounge has improved with aging

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The beef at 5A5 Steak Lounge is to meat lovers what Chateau Petrus is to wine buffs.

Even before the first cocktail arrives, the staff brings out a cutting board with four different cuts of A5 Wagyu, which costs $27-$29 an ounce. The marbling is so thick it looks as if a thin coat of suet has been spread on top and injected between the fibers.

As with Petrus, you pay for the indulgence. On my visits I skipped the Japanese delicacy and went for something more affordable, such as the prime rib ($28/10 ounces; $37/15 ounces).

The menu bills the place as San Francisco's first steak lounge, and that wording captures the spirit of the restaurant, which for a short time was the ultra-hip Frisson. It feels like a dinner club with a mid-century vibe.

Dining room dome

A round dome with Swiss-cheese-like holes in the center of the dining room looks as if it could have been a part of a set from the animated TV series "The Jetsons." The room is filled with semicircular cream-colored banquettes with dark brown embossed reptile skin accents. Faux snakeskin also covers some of the walls, and a carpet with black swirls echoes the shape of the ceiling dome and banquettes. On the wall behind and next to the bar, a large digital flame leaps across a flat screen, and a piano in one corner is often put to use.

It feels very cool, but with all the high-profile restaurants opening in the last few years, 5A5 has kind of gotten lost. However, a return visit shows that it has continued to improve, becoming a contender for one of the top steak houses in the Bay Area, a modern version of Harris'.

Chef hones his craft

Chef Allen Chen, who has been there since the opening, continues to hone his craft.

Many dishes have an Asian accent, though you can find a few traditional steak house staples like lettuce wedge salad ($9). His version with smoked bacon, egg, julienne of apple and blue cheese dressing is one of the best examples around.

A steak house has to have shrimp too, and Chen does this traditional appetizer ($16) one better. His is served warm, marinated in garlic and lemon, butterflied and partly taken out of the shell, and accompanied by a soy-based dipping sauce. Forget the shrimp cocktail; I'll take this version every time.

Another exceptional beginning is the Alaskan king crab legs ($23), which easily serves two. The split legs glisten in a spicy egg wash and chile-garlic beurre blanc.

Chen also creates smoked salmon pastrami ($12), a half dozen chunks arranged on dill creme fraiche with a triangle of rye toast and a tall haystack of caraway-studded sauerkraut.

"Dueling" tataki ($17) features tuna in one corner with kabayaki and salsa cruda, and escolar in the other with mango salsa and yellow bell pepper coulis. Both are enhanced by the accompaniments.

The non-steak main courses include an overly dry jasmine-tea-smoked chicken ($22) and some excellent lamb chops ($38) with a not-too-sweet cherry sauce and curls of torpedo onions.

I'd stick with the beef. The prime rib is thickly crusted with a salty mustard rub, and served with horseradish cream and natural jus sauce. There's also a 12-ounce boneless rib eye ($33) with demiglace, miso mustard, piles of pickled mustard seed and shishito peppers. It's creative, but the toppings and sauce pull the focus from the meat; next time I'd ask for everything on the side.

Other cuts also have embellishments: bacon jam, sous vide egg and demiglace with the 22-ounce dry-aged bone-in New York steak ($48); Tabasco beurre blanc and onion jam with the 4- or 8-ounce dry-aged strip steak ($24/$35).

As is the norm in steak houses, sides are extra. Choices include truffled mac and cheese ($10), mashed potatoes with Japanese curry gravy ($10) and marble potatoes with sour cream, cheddar cheese and bacon bits ($11).

Swiss chard ($9) comes mounded on a rectangular plate, mixed with red onions, garlic, white wine and a sprinkling of Parmesan; the combination works well. But green beans ($9), topped with lengths of crispy won tons, didn't fare as well. The flavorings of ginger, shallots, soy sauce and Thai fish sauce are good, but the beans were grossly undercooked and disappointing.

Desserts and service

Desserts have a fine pedigree. One of the most interesting is Peach Tea ($12) with lavender-poached fruit, Earl Grey and peach ice cream, and gateau Basque with hot tea poured around the edges.

When I initially reviewed the restaurant four years ago, service was a letdown. In the interval, management has worked hard to bring it up to the quality of the tab. It's now efficient and intuitive almost to the point of being annoyingly solicitous. Yet you can see that the staff care; they've made efforts to make the experience as special as the meat they serve.

While at times some of the food can seem overworked, 5A5 is worth discovering if you've never been there, and rediscovering if you've moved on to the next big thing. It's a steak house, but a steak house with a modern point of view.